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The Drowned
It is said, that in the earliest days of Mankind before the erasure of its waters, that Man feared not the beasts of the sky but the monsters of the depths. To this day, humanity has long understood that we are creatures of the land. Beneath the waters, we are strangers, ungainly in our efforts of motion and sense. Easy prey for the true denizens of the deep. Yet, the Great Crusade would not be denied. Not by witch, xenos, or beast. All planets were to be placed under the dominion of Man, be it prosperous agri-world or aquatic death world. It was into these pitiless environments the Emperor sent The Drowned as they would come to be known. Although the XVIth specialized in fighting in a variety of battlefields, as their name implies, it would be the wars beneath the waves that would come to define them. Against enemies that cared little for honour or glory, the Drowned became ruthless and practical as they scoured foes from entire worlds to open them to colonists, miners, and the rest of humanity. Although they met triumph after triumph, it was not without sacrifice. The harsh conditions of their warzone would force a price upon the Drowned and their infamous master, Sorrowsworn Morro. While the exact time can't be established, at some point in the Great Crusade, a corruption took root within the Legion. While readers may be familiar with their horrid results, this earlier form was subtle as it quietly spread through would-be defenders of humanity. For as one ancient philosopher warned, "He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." Origins and History Among all of the Emperor's Legions, the XVIth Legion operated at the furthest extents of Imperial military reaches. Many they worked alongside during the early days knew the legion to be fiercely independent but little did they know how far their drive for independence take them. Fractured at it's inception, and never really accepting of its Primarch, with a story told by others, trusted by few and kept at the outskirts of Imperial military society, following the Insurrection, many fingers could be, and were, pointed as to the cause of their defection. Regardless of the reasoning for it however, one fact remains; a nigh peerless group of highly motivated warriors with skills honed in a war fought against foes unknown with tactical doctrine developed outside of the auspices of Imperial scrutiny and record keeping. It is less about if the Drowned are coming, or even where they're coming, but more what is the Imperium going to be able to do about it. Idiosyncratic to the point of never acknowledging their given name, that the Drowned turned traitor can seem inevitable in hindsight. Much of this might be attributed to the influence of the wars that the XVIth were called upon to fight, gruelling and with little promise of glory. Yet in records sequestered from the public eye, we can see that the Drowned were infected early by the corruption which would drag down so many of the Insurrectionists, yoked to the darkness by their sinister Primarch. 'Origins: The Pathfinders' Long before their dark destiny among alien waters, the XVIth Legion would be born from the sands of the Eastern Mediterranean. The initial intakes for the newly created legion would be raised from a scattering of cities across Terra, all located by those few bodies of free-standing water that remained above or below the surface. It was from these arid lands, Rabia, Gyptos, Levant, and Galatia, that the Emperor would form the core of the XVIth. These lands in particular had suffered greatly during Old Night as the wars in these regions occurred more often and were fought with greater intensity. These conflicts forged the people into a hardy race that lived and breathed war as they navigated through the hostile environment. Given the dangers of the environment, each of these tribes had developed a tradition of highly skilled scout forces to guide their armies through harm. In many of these enclaves, water became a defensive weapon in its own right, the inhabitants withdrawing to the depths when enemies drew near and luring the invaders to their doom. The Emperor saw in their resilience and adaptability traits he would find amply useful in his chosen warriors. Thus when the XVIth began their tale in the final years of the Unification Wars it was with an unusual operation. The target was the domain of the ancient Jialter. Its ruler, Klawford, was an inspired scientist exiled from Mars who had set his labour-machines and slaves to erecting three vast dams around his fortress, diverting dozens of rivers and swallowing up lakes to eventually control several hundred square kilometres. The Emperor was concerned that the waters themselves might be used against his armies in a conventional attack, costing him not only valuable soldiers but also much of the archeotech Klawford’s forces possessed. So when Klawford returned only a single living envoy clad in the skins of his fellows, the Emperor turned to the XVIth and bade them devise a means to strike at Klawford through his most prized assets. The Legion, numbering roughly 2,000 at this time, deployed as individual squads into the underground channels that fed the reservoirs, using heavily modified tunnelling machines similar to those deployed in the Tempest Galleries campaign. Although contact with such vast weights of water would spell doom for many of the craft, over four-fifths of the Astartes survived to emerge into the water. They did not go unchallenged, for Klawford had created servitors of fiendish shape to guard his reservoirs, but he had woefully underestimated the power of the Space Marines and as dusk fell they rose from the water. Within nine hours of commencing their mission, the XVIth had captured each dam’s control stations, turning the surface-to-air defences on the craft sent to drive them away and destroy and dams. Klawford's unassailable defence was revealed as a crippling weakness, but his armies remained formidable, and the Emperor's warriors died in their hundreds against his swarms of machines, augmented mutants and clone-soldiers. Dozens more were lost fending off further attempts to wreck the dams and lay waste to the lands which Klawford ruled. For the entire night, the cannon-forested tops of the dams were silhouetted by the lights of conflict. Yet when the dawn came, it illuminated the Raptora raised over Klawford’s fortress. The remaining 2,000 Legionaries received the Emperor here, and delivered into his hands the captured warlord. Little is known of Klawford's fate, but rumour has it that he and a few other Martian renegades were later delivered into Kelbor-Hal's custody, to be dealt with as the Fabricator-General saw fit. 'Advent of the Monarchs' The XVIth's losses hampered their growth, but nonetheless their resourcefulness, tenacity and stable gene-seed placed them in demand as the Emperor’s wars spread beyond Terra. With the VIth they would brave the scorching climes of Venus, and their service in the moons of Jupiter earned plaudits from their cousins. When multiple attempts to scour the dreaded Dirigiscrae from the atmosphere of Neptune with virus-bombs failed due to the world’s superlative cold, it was the XVIth who were chosen to purge these vicious and powerful xenoforms. The XVIth approached the task with a great deal of preparation, carefully studying the information available. In the ferociously hot depths of the world, the life-eater had done its work, but the frigid cold of the main volume rendered it ineffective, and the violent atmosphere destroyed many virus-bombs before they could penetrate far enough to work. The Drowned noted this, demanding improvements to their armour and modified auspex devices to better penetrate the atmospheric interference. Then they ordered the creation of great vessels covered in what amounted to vast scaffolds, bedecked with cannons, from which their companies would operate. These were designed to survive the gas giant’s tempestuous atmosphere and provide points from which the Legion could engage their prey. This mode of warfare, shorn of horizons and any ground in sight, would likely have overwhelmed mortal minds, but the XVIth took to it with alacrity. Striking into the depths, they would corral and drive the aliens to the surface, where they could be targeted from orbit in large enough numbers. Nonetheless, even with the Magos Biologis' successful work in synthesising bio and chem-weapons lethal against the Dirigiscrae, and the immense power of the fleets in orbit, it was a long and gruelling campaign. Several of the vessels ran afoul of storms the size of Terran continents. As their cousins led heroic charges across the system, the XVIth were locked into a long and unforgiving campaign of extermination which took a grim toll upon them, reducing them from over ten thousand to the high hundreds. Apocryphally, Malcador is said to have looked upon the records when the campaign was done and declared, “As with its namesake, Neptune has claimed a toll of drowned men.” The Drowned would make up the deficit from a variety of worlds as the Crusade spread to new systems, finally establishing its stability under Lord Commander Primus Hennasohn. However, this drive was not enough to enable independent campaigning such as that undertaken by several Legions, even at this early stage. Hennasohn determined that a different course was necessary if his Legion was to prosper, foregoing prestige for strength and durability. Drawing together his senior captains and Lords Commander, he made his case and with their consent, drastically altered the path of the Legion. The XVIth would not exist as a few monolithic entities as so many of their cousins did. Instead twenty commanders, titled the Pelagic Monarchs, would each assume command of a portion, and this would be attached to another fleet. These varied extensively. Some Legions welcomed them and placed the Drowned Men on an equal footing with their own. Other segments found themselves at the core of largely Army flotillas, and several took to serving in isolation, outriders to larger forces. Records are patchy - an inevitability when dealing with the early Crusade - but it seems that the XVIth served with distinction wherever they fought. Certainly, several Monarchs achieved victories that suggest their fleets punching well above their weight. When the 44th Fleet encountered an Ork armada heading for a nearby Imperial system, the Drowned engaged in a series of running battles to slow them. Harrying the greenskins, they bought time for the Apostles of War under Kelentil to fortify the targeted worlds. When the Orks entered the system, they were sufficiently weakened that the Apostles wiped them out in just two days of fighting. In the Siege of Natoyia, the storied Five Fortresses fell to the Drowned after frustrating two XIXth Legion offensives. A senior commander from an unknown Legion coined the sobriquet “Lanterns” for the XVIth in recognition of their deeds, and it was enthusiastically adopted throughout the armies of the Crusade. Everywhere, that is, but the Legion itself. The Drowned appear to have viewed it as a sop to their dignity, some feeble compensation for a Legion who were, as a matter of course, outshone by almost all their peers. In this light, the nickname became bitterly ironic, and perhaps even a cruel joke. While the Legion did grow to the extent that, after six decades, most of their fleets could operate independently of their cousins, they could never match the rate of expansion made possible by a Primarch's mature gene-code. The observance that reunion typically brought a heightened tally of glories hardly needs repeating. So long as the Drowned lacked their gene-sire at the helm, they were consigned to the second or third rank of Legions. Indeed, some Primarchs had little patience for these forces attached to their fleets. Early on, Alexandros considered them a distraction from the business of getting properly acquainted with his Legion. While he secured these Drowned Men a healthy detachment of vessels and auxiliary forces with which they might form their own fleet for a time, the slight would not be forgotten. When he offered to renew the old arrangement after a joint campaign, it was snubbed until Alexandros offered the services of the Forge World Sarum for the fleet. As a result, ill-feeling persisted on both sides afterwards, and when the XVIth Legion element felt strong enough to break away on their own terms a decade later, several Vth Legion commanders privately expressed relief. There were successes, however. When Pionus Santor came to take charge of his Legion, he requested an audience with Hennasohn. Having read the Drowned's rolls of honour, he saw an expertise he was keen to incorporate into his own Legion. So the two Legions embarked on a collaborative work in honing tactics and equipment for combat in the Galaxy’s oceans, the XVIth profiting from the insights of a Primarch and the technology retrieved from Iona. Several Drowned fleets would serve closely with the XIXth, that the Scions might learn by example, and a close relationship was established between the two. But even here, bitterness intruded. For now the Drowned were steadily eclipsed in a field of war that they had long considered their own. From this point, when a fleetmaster found an Ocean World they could not easily subdue, their first thought was of the Scions Hospitalier, not those who had first begun to master such warfare before the Legions had left Terra’s orbit. The Drowned returned to relative obscurity, waiting with grim patience for the news that their Primarch had been found. Finally, as the turn of the century loomed, that news arrived, and the saga of the Drowned took a fresh turn. 'The Ferryman of Styx' (Author's note; Thought to be scraps of an old Terran poem-allegory, dated 2nd Millennium.) Styx was a gas giant similar to the one where the XVIth had first proved the sheer extent of their mettle. In truth, their Primarch hailed from one of this world’s satellites, named Feneos and almost as inhospitable as the world it orbited. A long orbit around Styx plunged the globe into constant twilight for most of its long year, forcing the population to subsist on arboretum-grown plants and nutrient paste. The freezing climate that ensued was just as cruel a mistress: vast underground and underwater complexes were the only inhabitable spaces on Feneos. The people of Feneos referred to themselves as Styxians to signify their origins elsewhere, showing a degraded understanding that there was something beyond the world they knew. Yet it seems they took little hope from this. A belief that they had been cast upon this merciless rock ran through their society, and they could find little answer for their misery other than to endure it. Joy was almost absent from Feneos. There was little to savour in the landscape outside, even in the fleeting months of summer. Feneos was dominated by jagged, forbidding mountain ranges, bleak tundra and treacherous wetlands. The latter were home to ravenous amphibian predators, and worse things lurked in the depths. It was for fear of these that the floating stations were mobile and heavily armed, like waterborne versions of the great landcrawler cities found on Medusa. It was only with great reluctance and no small amount of weaponry that the Styxians ventured beyond their homes to harvest fish and crop seeds. Those who strayed outside or failed to properly guard their homes might fall victim to even fouler predators, for the Dark Eldar had chanced upon this world and found a rich supply of misery. They did not gorge upon it, but tended it much as a farmer does his crops. It might readily be expected, therefore, that when a Primarch came to this world, he saw the suffering of his kind and took up arms against their tormentors. Such is to woefully mistake the character of Sorrowsworn Morro. Of course, little was ever known of Morro, and much of that suppressed by order of the Primarch or his father. The clearest insights available to us are supplied by a remembrancer named Willym Koch, who vanished in the days before Icarion and his allies revealed their true allegiance. His work, the Apocrypha Hades, was recovered by agents of the Sigillite in the early years of the war, and only a few have been allowed to view it. It is still a mystery when and where Morro's pod came to land. The first clue to his existence came when a retrieval party, seeking fresh crops, stumbled across the corpses of several predators. Some had been partially eaten, displaying human bite marks, and all had been torn apart rather than killed with guns or blades. The humans were unwilling to investigate further, for curiosity and survival were deemed incompatible on this world. Reports filtered in from other settlements, both of slain monsters and missing people, and the Styxians understood they had found something to fear as much as to inspire hope. Three Terran years passed before Morro made contact properly, emerging as the final sun of Feneos’ cycle set. Approaching the city Phlegethon, he stalked through a portion which had been rendered uninhabitable in a leviathan attack. Detecting him by sonar, the guards reacted just as they had been taught to deal with anything that arrived without announcing itself as human and peaceful. Unfortunately for them, crude lasrifles, autoguns and flamers proved utterly insufficient. Efficiently and without remorse, Morro stormed the outer defences, taking hostages until the defenders laid down their weapons and begged for an end to the violence. Morro's first demand was that the polity's ruler be brought before him. The cities had long since done away with hereditary rulers and instead were governed by the hardest of the grim, military men and women upon whom they had come to depend. In this case, the individual in question was a man named Nitas. Having served for two Terran decades, he had finally met his match in the Primarch. This failing was enough for Morro to declare Nitos unworthy, a crime punishable only by death. Crushing the ruler's skull, he pronounced himself lord of Plegethon. Other titles followed, the Primarch leading soldiers through the dark, storming cities and demanding their fealty. Men did not go abroad in the times of dark, least of all with hostile intent when to compromise a city meant to risk its destruction. Morro was spoken of as a creature born of the seas, a man in whose veins flowed the blood of monsters. Like them, he could withstand the merciless seas, striking the seaborne cities from below. Either he got his surrender, or purged all who resisted along with their kin. To better wage his wars, Morro delved into the schematics and technological lore that had resisted the Styxians' attempts to comprehend it. He had no use for anything that would ease his people’s lives, but if it would make them stronger, there he could find value. He put this strength to use, culling the predators on land and taking to the seas to hunt the great beasts. Morro would brook no challenge to his rule of the planet, and the creatures stood in his way. With them gone, Morro could work further towards strengthening his hold. It is likely that, in his isolated youth, he had stumbled across ancient mining tunnels, for he soon deduced the purpose of the excavation machines he found among the schematics. These he ordered built, and set his subjects delving into the crust for more resources to feed his ambition. He imposed a ruthlessly utilitarian regime upon the Styxians; they were naught but a resource. None could be said to know their brooding master well, but the rumours held that he was restless, seeking broader horizons beyond the world he had found. Certainly he tolerated no resistance. When the city of Tartanlus refused to submit, Morro used his tunneling machines to break it open. Seizing the climate control facilities, he froze the denizens into submission. Once the survivors gave in, he took them as slaves and set them to work in the mines. If the Styxians had any inclination toward art before, they certainly lacked it now, save for poetry of a singularly morbid bent. Perhaps alone of the Primarchs, Morro coveted items of great value without apparent regard for their aesthetic or practical value. He did not adorn himself with these trinkets, but he hoarded them all the same. Koch seems to have believed it was more about depriving the Styxians and reminding them of his power over them. By his decree they knew no happiness, and they could do nothing to contest that decree. Such transgressions, however, were nothing to the most dreadful way in which Morro used his people. Exactly when Morro first encountered the Dark Eldar is not known; early, it is thought, for Koch found accounts in which Morro scoured cities with a gun that spat cold fire and a blade of pitted bone. Regardless, he had did see them merely as foes or obstacles, and he coveted their weapons. For all the industry he fostered, he found little to rival the weapons he claimed from alien hands. A hunting party of Dark Eldar came to Feneos, Morro was partway through his conquests. When word came of them moving toward his territory, he went to intercept them - but not to kill. Instead, in an act which would be kept secret for well over a century, Morro struck a sinister bargain with the xenos. For a cache of weaponry and an agreement that they would not trespass on his domain, he gifted them a tithe of his subjects. A Primarch sold his people into an existence of torment which could only end in death. We do not know how many times this bargain was repeated, but repeated it was, until outsiders broke the cycle. 'Rough and Muddled Waters' Koch's account falters here, not from a lack of information available to him, but because elements have been excised by other hands. A few facts are preserved; a Legiones Astartes fleet tracked a Dark Eldar raiding force to the orbit of Styx, where they destroyed the alien craft. Then they turned to the moon beneath them, raking it with auspex scans which returned unusual energy signatures and primitive vox-communications. In those communications they heard references to a man, a warrior who could never be a mortal man. Deeming themselves out of their depth, they transmitted their suspicions to the nearest fleets, and those missives brought two Primarchs, one of them Icarion. The truth was soon outed, and Morro's death prevented only by Icarion. Whispers take the place of fact at this time, although the claim is often repeated that Morro was brought before the Emperor in chains. While Morro claimed that he no longer had need of Styx and its miserable satellite, there were many who maintained that the Emperor stripped him of his fief. The truth was that Feneos could not provide the quantity of aspirants that Morro desired, and while it initially supplied the core of the Legion’s strength, he quickly claimed recruitment worlds elsewhere. We can surmise that the Emperor saw little point in educating Morro in matters of governance or politics; the lessons were strictly military. In these at least, Morro acquitted himself, and in time was granted overlordship of his Legion, operating under the oversight of Pionus Santor. It was hoped by many that Pionus' noble spirit would prove a potent example to his brother, and that Morro would in time grow into his station. Yet while Morro learned to respect Pionus’ prowess, there was little warmth between them. If the Drowned had expected their Primarch would gather the fleets and wage war with his entire Legion at his back, they too were disappointed. With cold calculation he deemed the current system fit for his purposes, seeing how the Scions had adopted something similar, so long as his sons submitted completely to his rule. Hennasohn repeatedly petitioned him to unite the XVIth and fulfil the promise Hennasohn had made to his brothers so long ago. Morro’s response, after a decade, was to effectively exile the old Legion Master at the head of his own fleet. The Legion’s character turned still more dour; the worlds Morro deemed worthy of feeding his Legion were invariably harsh places to live, and bred men who knew no cheer. All of those who joined the Drowned showed an unbending loyalty to their Primarch, as did many of their older brothers. If this seems strange, then we must remember that the XVIth had never been a large Legion, and Morro’s tenure ended that era of stunted growth. Moreover, ill-favoured as he was, the Primarch won sufficient victories to finally draw notice to his Legion. Koch surmised from the words of Monarchs and senior captains that Morro had not so much refused to engage with his Legion as opted to bide his time, not overtly remoulding it but ensuring that his influence seeped into its every fibre. The XVIth's plate became ocean blue-green and copper, and the custom of taking a Styxian name upon ascension became commonplace. In 919.M30, Morro summoned the overwhelming majority of the Drowned for a campaign against the abhuman Ghrend. The effect on morale, even among such a grim brotherhood as this, was electrifying. From this point on, the Drowned's “tendrils” would be fewer and larger. Yet there were those who did not receive the call, most notably Hennasohn. The old Legion Master was left isolated, campaigning beside the Apostles of War. Soon that Legion would undergo their own great change when their Primarch was found. Gwalchavad would keep Hennasohn close for a time, an act of beneficence, but one which would ultimately bring terrible consequences for both sides. In the short term, discord between Gwalchavad and Morro would be the result in the wake of the near-disaster at Nox. When violence loomed between the Legions and the isolated magos of Abyssii, Morro had seen a chance to gain glory and power much as K'awil had on Lasaris. When Alexandros negotiated an end to the standoff, Morro made little effort to hide his resentment and disgust that a “meekling” diplomat was so highly praised. He made some efforts to ingratiate himself with his brothers, but here too his own nature would foil him. In an episode which was widely covered up, Morro cheated against a brother in a game of Regicide. Arguing that it proved his philosophy - that war recognised no notion of fair play, and neither should the Emperor’s armies - tensions that had simmered for some time abruptly came to the boil, and two Primarchs came to blows in earnest. When it became clear that Morro was fighting not simply to win, but to maim or worse, Gwalchavad stepped in. In the ensuing struggle, he severed Morro's forearm, a wound that even a Primarch's body would not heal entirely. A saner man might have submitted to the attentions of the medicae present. Morro, however, stormed from the ship, spitting curses as he went. The Drowned departed almost immediately after the Copper Prince was aboard his flagship. In the hands of his apothecaries, Morro learned the limits of what his physiology could overcome. An augmetic hand was crafted by his artificers, but the injury seems to have sown especially bitter fruit in his psyche. Perhaps it was a factor in the gene-meddling to which Morro had his apothecaries devote so much of their energies. Morro was brought to heel by Pionus and Icarion a few months later, and he was sufficiently contrite that his life was again spared. However, he was to labour under Icarion's watchful eyes for a further five years, and his Legion would spend a further decade being observed by a Custodes detachment led by Prefect Sareic Veron. That the watchers found nothing to concern them did nothing to banish the pall of suspicion that hung over the Primarch, and it extended to the Legion during this time. Several XVIth fleets and their leading councils found themselves at pains to ensure their good standing was not tarnished by association. There was no such effort by the Copper Prince to rehabilitate his reputation. Approximately thirty years before the Qarith Triumph, Morro acquired a new Gloriana-class ship for his fleet. The circumstances are deeply mysterious - normally the construction of such prestigious vessels was an occasion for rejoicing among the Mechanicum, and in any case difficult to hide - and the acquisition drew condemnation from several other Legions. Morro ensured that attention was lavished upon the vessel, ensuring that like his flagship, it far outclassed most vessels of its kind. He seems to have taken a cruel delight in how this angered some of his brothers, although the reason for their disquiet remains unknown. In his relations with other Legions, Morro had always made it clear that he would not tolerate sympathy. He rather welcomed the cold treatment he now received from Pionus - mild when compared to the Crimson Lions and Iron Bears, who refused to have anything to do with the Drowned. He sought out only the company of Raktra, Alexos Travier and Yucahu. Kozja Darzales he kept in contact with out of necessity; Kozja’s status as prime advocate for gene-seed manipulation shielded Morro from attention and criticism, and Morro searched incessantly for a means to repair his infirmity. 'The Beckoning Abyss' Morro would take pride in being called upon for the Qarith War and his vital role in its resolution, but for him the Triumph’s glory would be mingled with bitterness. While his Legion played a vital role in exterminating this vile xenos race, which rivalled the armies of the Imperium in adaptability and deadliness, they were only one part of the machine which waged this war. In the overall conflict and the climactic scouring of Qarith Prime, Pionus Santor held command, and Morro was obliged to share the glory with Hectarion, whom he despised. When the Triumph brought Alexandros’ appointment as Warmaster, Morro's demeanour was perhaps best described by Captain Mytakis of the Scions - "septic". His animosity towards Alexandros was both personal and - for want of a better word - professional. It galled him to see acclaim heaped upon a man whose methods he held in such contempt, and who in return had never forgiven Morro over his use of the Styxians. Other Primarchs were resentful, that is certain, but Morro went furthest in his dissent, vowing that he would recognise no authority save Icarion's or the Emperor's. Alexandros, for his part, held the Drowned at arm's length, aided by Pionus and Icarion's willingness to act as intermediaries. Morro's unwillingness to share authority with others, save by order of the Emperor, was often shared by his lieutenants, especially towards the more prestigious Army regiments. The XVIth made their disgust clear at the heaping of accolades upon weak mortals, and certainly would not deign to treat their commanders as anything but subordinates. So the Drowned were consigned in the main to campaigns where they would share few battlefields, if any, with their allies. So isolated were they that the first stages of their corruption went utterly unseen by outsiders, though we suspect that Travier, that patient spider, was to some degree aware. At some point between 003-011.M31, Morro's fleet came across a band of Dark Eldar. The xenos were led an individual who, even among a race dedicated to spreading torment, was a figure of surpassing infamy. Morro might have known of him already, and in some tales it took only the name of Uriel Rakarth to still his blade. What is certain is that Rakarth offered secrets in return for his prolonged existence, as well as a steady supply of victims which Morro duly granted. The first gift was of particular significance; Rakarth promised Morro a hand, not the equal of his lost one, but something better. Where all other efforts had failed, Rakarth would succeed, and as soon as it was bound to his flesh, Morro used it to crumple his hateful augmetic. It was organic, but a far cry from the finely wrought flesh and bone of a Primarch. Woven into his arm, it irrevocably altered Morro, and this proved only the beginning of His sons' corruption. Rakarth would grant the Drowned weaponry and other technology, esoteric and still fouler. Warriors wounded unto internment in a sarcophagus, or even too ravaged to survive that process, were changed. Hidden from the sight of outsiders, they became the Forlorn, twisted husks armed with the most dreadful of Morro's acquisitions. This arsenal would grow steadily as Rakarth steered Morro towards Eldar targets, both Exodites and his own twisted kin. Some of his advisers bade him dispose of the prisoner, but none of their efforts met with success. A sense of self-preservation, whether for the Legion or oneself, prevented word from travelling further. Morro's disgust for his father and the Imperium he and the Warmaster were shaping was calcified by the Vizenko Prosecution. As always, in his mind, the choice was made for weakness and squeamishness. On this basis alone, Icarion had rightly expected a willing ally when he sought Morro out, and it is unlikely he gained the full measure of just what that entailed. Morro was always cunning above all, and he knew that even if Icarion withheld the lionisation which would surely greet the Warbringers, Godslayers and Halcyon Wardens when they declared, he would need the Drowned. Finally Morro could begin reveal the true extent of the power he had accrued, and delve deeper. 'The Sink into Darkness' While our Order has compiled the most complete account to date of these following years, it is by no means comprehensive, due to how little information was found of this time. It is well known that Morro took the majority of his Legion to the infra-galactia-planum, also known as the sub-galactic plane. From that point on, the Drowned had no contact with any Legion or Imperium military forces outside the Scions Hospitalier. Even then, Morro never took to the field himself in the company of the Emperor's war machine. Despite the lack of contact, the War Council received continuing Compliance records as the Drowned prosecuted the Great Crusade. During this time, the Drowned's tactics would become more brutal and bloody as they reaped system after system in the name of the Emperor. Morro would not appear to his brother Primarchs, until fifty years had passed. Details are scant, but two facts were confirmed. The first was that it was during 973.M30 that Morro acquired a second Gloriana warship, the sole Primarch to possess two of these unique battleships. The second, and a mystery to this day, was that Morro had not healed from the prior incident, still possessing a single arm. It had long been assumed that Morro would have had replaced his arm with a vat-grown replacement or, at the very least, sought out a cybernetic replacement for war. Theories range from the unique nature of Gwalchavad's attack as responsible to an early portent of Morro's corruption taking form, the latter suggesting that the missing arm had been a key ingredient to a fell ritual. The truth, unfortunately, is denied to us. For both the Warmaster appointment and the conclusion to the Vizenko Prosecution, Morro's thoughts were shared only through intermediaries. In response to Alexandros' appointment to Warmaster, Morro made it known that he condemned the action, favoring Icarion over Alexandros. When the Emperor convened the Prosecution, Morro sent Hennasohn and his Equerry, Boraeo to represent Morro and the Drowned. As detailed earlier in this tome, Morro stood in defense of his brother Kozja. It would take a summons from the Warmaster's own hand for Morro to appear to the Imperium. The Agonium Imperator was supposed to be a celebration of the Emperor's success in leading the Great Crusade and a renewal of purpose under the new Warmaster. Alexandros planned the event as an way to reforge bonds of brotherhood between the Legions and the Primarchs. For seven days, feasts and games played out as Terra, for the first and last time, was the temporary home to all eighteen Primarchs and their personal guards. Sorrowsworn Morro, still crippled, would be a dour participant, alternating his time with his brothers Pionus or Icarion when he wasn't keeping his own company. It was quickly learned that the Lord of the XVIth would not answer any question regarding his disability, and it was a reliable way to raise his ire. Throughout the Agonium, the Warmaster several times would offer a hand in friendship. Each time, Morro rejected him and would leave the moment he was free to do so. It is during these last decades of the Great Crusade that the most disturbing signs would surround the Drowned and their erstwhile master. At some point in the early 32nd Millennium, the Drowned encountered the Dark Eldar as revealed by later sources. During the battle, the Drowned succeeded in capturing one of the twisted leaders, a Haemonclous as we now know by the name of Urien Rakarth. Against the wishes of his senior advisers, Morro did not execute the cruel xeno, who promised to finally heal Morro of his deformity. In a decision that would seal his fate, Morro agreed. By some unknown means, the hated creature was able to succeed where Morro's own apothecarion had failed. Although technically a captive, Rakarth began to exhibit hateful influence over Morro. It would be during this time that the Forlorn would come into being, twisted experiments that turned crippled Legionaries into foul weapons to serve at their Primarch's discretion. The Drowned redirected their priorities to attack Eldar targets at the 'request' of Rakarth, laying the seeds for the Eldar's on-going hatred of Morro and the Drowned. Finally, besides the corruption of body and mind, Morro delved past boundaries established by the Emperor Himself into forbidden lore, tainting his very soul in the process. During these explorations into the taboo, an unexpected visitor would firmly set Morro on the path of Insurrection. It is not known exactly how Alexos Travier became aware of Morro's dark curiosity, but after a visit from the mad Primarch, Morro embarked on a pilgrimage for 'truth'. Not even the Drowned know what transpired on this voyage. Only that when Morro returned, it was with a haunted look on his features. When Icarion approached Morro to persuade the Lord of the XVIth to his cause, Morro agreed without hesitation, only on the condition that Icarion not pry into the Drowned's affairs. Never truly realizing the evil before him until it was far too late, Icarion assented, all too eager for allies in his coming war. Legion Organisation and Structure In a rare reversal of the typical evolution of Legions, the Drowned would begin the Great Crusade with an organizational system far removed from the tenets of the Prinicipia Belicosa, and it would be Sorrowsworn Morro who would bring the Drowned more in line with standard structures. Furthermore, not all of the Drowned fleets would adopt their Primarch's guidance in regards to structure, choosing to maintain traditions established at the onset of the Great Crusades. For these tradition-bound tendril fleets, the figurative head was found in the Ayatollahs, or the Ayatollah of the Abyss. It would be with these officers that host commanders would interact with, reviewing over tactics and strategies. Never would an Ayatollah would commit to any one course of action, until he had a chance to confer with his 'staff'. On board the Ayatollah's flagship, the Pelagic Monarchs convened to discuss operations and what orders the host commander intended to implement. While the Monarchs held ranks equivalent to subordinate staff officers, in reality, it was the Monarchs who would decide what course or role the Drowned would play in the upcoming campaign. After a period of debate, the Pelagic Monarchs would vote for one course of action or another, and it was then that the Ayatollah would return to the host commander to deliver the Drowned's decision. In the early phases of the Great Crusade, the likelihood of the Drowned performing as their host fleet desired could vary considerably. The Shepherds of Eden never treated their XVIth Legion attachment with nothing less than full courtesy and consideration. As such, the Ayatollah and the Monarchs serving with the VIIth Legion not once had countermanded their hosts. Occupying the opposite end of the spectrum was the toxic rivalry between the Drowned and the XVth Legion, then known as the Wraiths. The Wraiths would consistently order their Drowned allies to fulfill diversionary roles, while the Wraiths carried out psychological warfare. Given that these battlefield roles would lead to a substantial amount of casualties, the Drowned would vacillate between modifying the orders to reduce casualties or outright refuse to take to the field. A mere decade into the Great Crusade, the Drowned tendril fleet would completely abandon the XVth Legion and instead offer their services to the 60th Expeditionary Fleet, one of the first fleets composed with no Astartes elements. Although the Drowned tendril fleets would prefer to accommodate their host fleets, no Legionary commander was beyond challenge. Far less willing were Ayatollahs in challenging the command of a Primarch. The Sons of the Emperor wielded great power and personal charisma that it was the rare Ayatollah who could stand against them. Often this was cited as yet another source of bitterness that wore the Drowned's spirit as many tendril fleets became coerced into fighting costly battles that tended to spare their hosts from the reaper's tally. This more traditional structure of Drowned forces was named the Psalida by Sorrowsworn Morro, while the Drowned directly beneath his command he dubbed the Kelyfos. When Morro assumed his rightful place at the head of the XVIth, the Kelyfos consisted a single fleet that had originally been commanded by Hennasohn. After assigning Hennasohn his own fleet, Morro began to consolidate existing tendril fleets into his own, gradually growing in concentrated strength, until the Kelyfos featured more than half the Legion in one massive fleet and outnumbering the Psalida. One aspect that was shared throughout the entire Legion were battlefield tactics. The Drowned mastered the various arts and intricacies of three-dimensional warfare, whether operating in void, subterranean, or aquatic environments. Non-linear strategic thinking was sought and developed as the Drowned preferred to ambush foes from unexpected corridors. Standard combat doctrine had Drowned fast infantry and light armour elements launch simultaneous strikes against enemy forces, both to pin enemy detachments and to confuse enemy commanders about the nature and strength of Drowned elements. Area denial weapons, from artillery to phosphex weapons, were deployed and valued for their ability to fix the enemy. When the enemy was sufficiently 'flooded', the Drowned delivered the final blow, called the Rostrum, via heavy armoured or elite infantry units that would break the enemy army. The Drowned showed no preference for any particular type of unit over another, instead only allowing brute utility to determine which units served throughout campaigns in trademark Drowned blunt pragmatism that granted the XVIth a great deal of flexibility when combating threats. The only nonstandard unit in the Drowned's stockpile were combat-grade breaching drills that gave the Drowned another avenue of attack against their foes. Every Drowned expeditionary fleet maintained a number of these subterranean vehicles, in addition to well cared for drop pods, submarine vessels, and any other equipment that allowed the Drowned to operate outside of the two-dimensional plane. 'Legion Command Hierarchy' The development of the XVIth Legion's structure was in some ways the reverse of the usual trajectory for a Legion, hewing closer to the archetypal templates after the Primarch was found. It must be remembered, of course, that this had always been the attention of the commanders in the years before Morro, and he instigated many changes which were distinctly non-standard. Nor were they all carried through; while the XIXth existed as shifting collections of companies which could easily be recombined, the XVIth's tendril fleets were closer to the clans and tribes of other Legions, and fiercely independent with it. Several retained older structures, rendering themselves less compatible with outside elements. One of Morro's innovations proved unique among the Legions; a body of men smaller than a squad. A grouping of ten or twenty men, he believed, was overly cumbersome in a Zone Mortalis engagement, and thus each Tactical, Assault and Breacher squad was divided into a "cell" of five. As with Pionus' reforms, Morro's changes did away with fixed bodies of Battalion size in the Legion, although he retained Chapter-sized psalida. Shoals replaced companies, and these were numerated by the ancient Levantine system, to the frustration of Munitorum officials and Army commanders tasked with making sense of the archaic denominations. The size of a shoal or psalida might also vary, often a result of a Tendril modelling itself upon or in contrast to a Legion force it had been tied to in the past. Likewise their composition could differ greatly, although across the Legion some peculiar tendencies were noted. The Drowned had little trust in machines over their own strength, and the esoteric technology so beloved of the Scions Hospitalier had little appeal for them, beyond craft modified for underwater combat and automata to take up the slack in place of mortals. Brute utility on all occasions was the Drowned's demand. The only non-standard war machines they favoured were breaching-drills, descendants of the engines used on Terra by the nascent XVIth. Fast-attack infantry units featured heavily in the XVIth, often incorporating methods and equipment favoured by terror squads in a few other Legions. Using the tactics Morro had conceived in subjugating Feneos, these would typically be unleashed against an enemy alongside small armour elements, softening resistance and identifying weak points before the deployment of "area denial" weapons. Varying from massed artillery to chem and radiation weapons, these paved the way for the Rostrum, a massed attack with heavy armour and elite infantry elements. Dedicated heavy weapons squads became rare, as Morro deemed them inefficient in the theatres of war to which the Drowned were so often assigned. Instead these specialists were embedded within Tactical squads, which themselves often took on aspects of Assault and Despoiler squads. This leant them considerable self-sufficiency in smaller actions, but ensured that squads would have to be deployed in a particular fashion in larger terrestrial engagements in order to, for example, concentrate heavy support marines in a given location. Extensive decoration of wargear was frowned upon within the Legion, and they scorned the gaudy ornaments favoured by their cousins. However, their actual wargear was to the highest standard; the warrior who kept his armour less than pristine was a risk to his fellows and the glory of the Legion itself. What marks they did bear were stark and spartan, prizing easy identification above all else. 'Command Hierarchy Besides the Primarch himself, authority flowed from the Ayatollah and the Pelagial Monarchs who advised him. Even before Morro was found, they had been a proud brotherhood, disdaining the efforts others to assert authority over them. Primarchs generally proved able to bend these men to their wills, but even that had a limit: the Tendril assigned to the XVth Legion parted from K'awil's command on acrimonious terms, accusing him of using them as "meat-shields" and claiming the glory for himself. Morro himself exerted little direct command over much of his Legion, but when he did it was with the expectation of total obedience. When he reclaimed a Tendril fleet, any idiosyncrasies he did not find a use for would be done away with, and he always had the last say on matters of strategy. Dissent and weakness were to be rooted out and eradicated, and Morro and his officers held full power of reward or punishment over their subordinates. The Pelagial Monarchs took in a variety of officers: senior captains and consuls of various kinds took their places in advising the Ayatollah. As Monarchs, they were at least notionally equal, and the nature of warfare waged by the Drowned ensured that the input of their specialist officers was of particular importance. Indeed, in several fleets an Ayatollah was elected not until death or for a set time, but simply for the duration of a campaign. It is notable, however, that this practice entered a decline as commanders began to emulate Morro's uncompromising authority. 'Specialist Ranks' *'Ayatollah of the Abyss' *'Pelagic Monarch' *'Charonic Strike Leader' *'Charonic Seeker' 'Specialist Units' 'Pelagic Monarchs' These are the elite of the legion who represented the legion, replacing it's typical command structure post the Sol System Campaign and the events taking on Neptune. In a bid to obfusticate a bit of the bureaucracy which he had to deal with, he issued the command to dissolve the traditional leadership into a council, with one nominated leader - this "leader" was merely the mouthpiece to the rest of the Imperium and to the host legion - while the host legion would initially believe they were speaking to the Drowned's Force Commander, instead they spoke with someone who would repeat the "orders" back to the Monarch council, who would then enact the plan as they best saw fit - their authority stemming from the Lord Commander to ignore the orders of the host fleet if it proved detrimental to the efforts of the Drowned Legion - essentially to prevent the Drowned from being used as bullet sponges from the host legion. Henno would have done the same, which is why he did that. Following the discovery of Morro, and as the Primarch attempted to bring the legion back into more typical Legion organisational structure, the Monarchs either melded back into typical command, or just continued to follow their own routine as appropriate. Morro eventually gave up, allowing the legion to operate on the way it had already done so for a great many years, so you may encounter tendrils still following the mandate of the Pelagic Monarchs as they were initially set up, and other tendrils under command of a Legion Praetor who considered the Monarchs a bodyguard for him. Given their smaller size to their host legions, and often operating as pathfinders, the Monarchs developed tactics in order to counter the largest foes the enemy sent, but rather than trying to pull off the hatch, they simply use oversized arc welders to rip open the hull to take on enemy titan class. The Storm Shields are not a typical upgrade for the legion, and come from the Abyssii forges. The Monarchs are the commanding Legion Council, and will only go ahead with certain actions based on essentially a vote, making it difficult for the host legion to simply use the Drowned as fodder/shields. Some legions may not have done that, but Hennasohn certainly would have done it, were he in their position, hence why he attempted to stop it. It also was to stop the idea that there was one legion commander, in a manner similar to big "ball" shoal of mackerel, and that they'd be able to quickly adapt around that. 'Charonic Seekers' Veteran elites who wear Tartaros Terminator armour. Specialist, ranged assassin Terminators. The Terminators of the legion use almost exclusively Tartaros Pattern, and the Charonic Seekers, are equipped with Havoc Launchers, Chainfists, and Rotor Cannons, with some using the Iliastus-Pattern Assault Cannon or Cyclone Missile Launcher. These units are intended to Deep Strike on units, and unleash a hail of firepower. They used Nuncio Vox to pinpoint the location of the target. 'Forlorn' (Elite, Gal Vorbak style) Possessed Legionaries. War Disposition By the Day of Revelation, Morro had 140,000 Legionaries at his command. Over 100,000 of these were grouped into his personal fleet, the Kelyfos. This is an incomplete picture, however, for the Forlorn had not yet been unveiled, and we do not know how numerous they were at this point. It has been suggested that their use factored into the considerable growth of the Legion prior to the Day of Revelation, as their lives were spent in the place of ordinary warriors. Certainly the Drowned practiced this approach with other assets, as noted elsewhere in this account. Morro was acutely aware of his Legion's small size, and as noted elsewhere in this account he took numerous measures to compensate for the deficiency. As a consequence, the Legion boasted large numbers and a wide range of Mechanicum allies, taking in disfavoured and divergent sects. These became a grim client army of sorts for the XVIth, often ruling over the Legion's territories and culling the weak for servitors and automata. This arrangement was kept quiet at the time; had the Drowned maintained them over a true stellar empire like Tricendia or the Madrigal Sphere, it is likely that outrage would have ensued. These allies enabled the Drowned to retain a disproportionately large fleet, many of whose vessels were pillaged from enemies vanquished in the Crusade and thus defy classification. As with the Berserkers of Uran and the Void Eagles, suspicion lingered that xenos craft had been incorporated into their flotilla, and the magos in their service had laboured to ensure that nothing could be proven. Certainly, none ever dared take their suspicions further and risk incurring Morro's emnity. Another mystery was the number of Legion vessels which were clearly Imperial-made, yet of whose construction no records existed. This was the case in small numbers throughout the IIIrd, Vth, VIth and XIXth Legion fleets, but the Drowned possessed the largest number of such vessels and - as noted before - the Gloriana Queen of the Damned. Even before the Insurrection, none seemed to know of where this vessel had been created, and it seems a forlorn hope now that we will ever learn the truth. What we know for a fact is that the Drowned, operating regularly without Army support, had taken care to amass a large number of capital ships which enabled them to conduct planetary siege operations and wage void warfare on their own. From captured and stolen data-cores, it appears that the figure of 140,000 referred to the number of warriors Morro deemed willing to follow him into rebellion. 100,000 of these would blood themselves above and on Untara, and many of the remaining 40,000 would be tasked with eliminating those not trusted to fall in line. In several cases the Loyalist Drowned, thoroughly disadvantaged, would be wiped out by their treacherous kinsmen, but they too were guileful and tenacious sons of Morro, and not to be underestimated. The 2513th Expeditionary Fleet disintegrated entirely when the Ayatollah's writ was contested, leaving only a handful of survivors on either side. While only a single loyal Psalida would come through the initial burst of violence to fight on in the Emperor's name, scattered companies endured and vowed to defy their gene-sire's perfidy. 'Legion Wargear' *'Pelagic Spear' - The Pelagic Spear was one of the gifts that the legion took to the stars with. The Drowned, of all the legions, possibly appreciated the irony of all of them in using the symbol of a dead faith, and despoiling it. Sourcing from legends of ancient Terra, they took the symbol of the ancient god of the sea, and broke it over their knees, reforging the trident into the bident, mirroring that symbol of the underworld. This "warfork" not only provides a lethal powered edge for slicing through armour, but can be overcharged into an incandescent plume of corposant energy, which is capable of peeling back the armour of even the toughest of threats. These specialised weapons were granted to those of the Drowned whom Lord Commander Hennasohn chose to be his council representing the will of the XVIth Legion to their tendril fleets' hosts, these two-pronged Bidents were all once Tridents; the central tang broken off during the gifting, symbolically representing the end of superstition. That the weapon was now similar to the traditional weapon of a god of a mythological underworld was either an irony missed or paradoxically enjoyed by the Legion. *'Abyssal-pattern Storm Shields' - These shields were gifts from the Mechanicum Abyssii, encountered by a tendril fleet scouting for the Wardens of Light during the early days of the crusade. These immense slabs of metal were round, in the manner of the ancient Terran Hoplon shields, and contain powerful force fields. *'Vigil-pattern Storm Shields' - Following the treatise formally welcoming the Abyssii within the Imperium, the trade agreements made saw the war reparations provide sufficiently powerful technologies to the Drowned. One of the later improvements to the Boarding Shield provided the Legion with the Vigil Storm Shield. Providing a greater defensive field which could protect the bearer against all but the heaviest weaponry. *'Agoniser Tendrils' - At the beginning of their macabre evolution, the Tendrils were a pair of multiple-tailed and savagely bladed whips, over which Morro’s implants leant him preternatural control. It is theorised that Uriel Rakarth had a hand in their design, as they epitomised cruelty in the way that the Dark Eldar have made a hallmark of their weapons. Nontheless, the Tendrils were a more potent set of weapons than perhaps any wielded by that race. Exemplary Battles Long have the Drowned toiled unseen and unhonoured across hundreds of battlefields where only transhumans dare to tread. This lack of recognition combined with the brutal nature of their warzones bred a Legion that was willing to use any tool or tactic, regardless of others' sensibilities. Many a foe would come to rue the day the Drowned took to the field as they became subjected to disorienting flanking maneuvers to cruel chem-munitions. Yet, it never mattered how many victories the Drowned acheived, for they were always shadowed by other Legions. Only a fraction of the Drowned's campaigns are well-known to us. Quite aside from the Legion's secrecy, the environments in which they plied their trade frequently deterred and impeded outside observers. Indeed, the reports by Prefect Veron and his cadre have proven invaluable in exploring how the XVIth waged war when apart from their cousins, the Custodians being able to brave the inhospitable battlefields where the Drowned thrived. As with the Scions Hospitalier, the Drowned demonstrated a willingness to adapt in order to persevere, learning from the other Legions with whom they grudgingly served. As time progresses, we can see how this hunger for greater potency led them to stray beyond the Emperor's bounds, ensuring a need for greater secrecy even as they chose more arduous campaigns, craving recognition for what Morro deemed his Legion's primacy. 'First Contact at Nox' The first Imperial ship to communicate with the Mechanicum Abyssii would be the Daw-wama, a cruiser escorted by two frigates. Upon entering the system, the Daw-wama sent out its discovery to the both the Drowned and Wardens of Light fleets before cautiously advancing toward the Nox system. Responding to the unknown ships, Mechanicum fleet elements in the form of two light cruisers with several light escorts moved to intercept. The two small fleets met above the outermost planet of the system, Semotus. Although the communication codes were centuries old, it took only half an hour before a working dialogue was established, giving time for the rest of the 11th Expeditionary Fleet to be alerted to the Daw-wama's discovery. The situation deteriorated as the Abyssii demanded that the Drowned warship stand down and prepare to be boarded. At the time of this exchange, Hennasohn remained absent, a mere thirty minutes away as his ship sped to the Nox system. Command laid in the hands of the Monarch Bloodravager Vaisso, who refused to recognize the Abyssii's authority. With this simple rejection, the Abyssii, in their binary thinking, labeled the unknown ships as enemy forces and opened fire. While the Drowned warships were technically outnumbered, they possessed the heavier warships and were at complete combat readiness when hostilities broke out. With the Abyssii warships carrying superior ranged weapons, Vaisso ordered his fleet to close the distance and to prepare boarding torpedoes. At full speed, the Drowned warships were upon the Abyssii vessels after enduring only a single volley. Launching a wave of boarding actions, the Drowned assault teams soon ran rampant through the Abyssii ships' complements of Skitarii and combat servitors. Even as the Mechanicum ships suffered internally, they obeyed their pre-set programming and continued firing with machine precision. It would be the Abyssii who would score the first kill as the Abyssii overwhelmed the Drowned frigate, Orphnaeus. The victory was short-lived as the one Drowned assault team successfully conquered the bridge of the Sufficient Gravitas. With an entire light cruiser incapacitated, the battle swung in favor of the Drowned. For a moment it appeared as though the Drowned would secure the outer regions of the system. That optimism was shattered when auspex readings informed Shoalmaster Vaisso additional Abyssii warships were approaching. Later identified as the Amber Citadel, a battle cruiser approached, leading another cruiser with four more escorts. Now outnumbered and outclassed, Vaisso was on the verge of ordering a retreat when more ships appeared, this time at the system's Mandeville Point. Another Drowned cruiser, the Daemon of the Deep, approached with two escorts on her flanks. Far less than what he hoped, Vaisso still prepared to make a withdrawal. Then, a mere moment later, the rest of the Drowned pathfinder fleet warped in, Hennasohn's personal battleship at their head. Assuming command of the Imperium forces, the revered Old Man attempted to end the war through diplomacy, eager to avoid breaking an entire Forge World. The reply he received came from the battleship, Armageddon's Blade. The Abyssii answer was the same as before, stand down and be boarded. Unwilling to comply, Hennasohn committed the rest of the Drowned tendril fleet to battle. Casualties grew as ships perished in flame, both Drowned and Abyssii. While possessing more ships, the Abyssii now fielded two battleships to the Drowned's one. To shift the battle back in the Drowned's favor, Hennasohn ordered three strike cruisers to dive and board the second battleship, the Last Unto Dawn, from below. Although one strike cruiser perished in the defensive volleys, the other two reached their objective, rotating to present their broadsides to the Last Unto Dawn's underbelly. Although there is no true 'up' or 'down' in the void, a ship's gravity makes it difficult to assault a warship from beneath due to disorientation. The Drowned, masters of three-dimensional warfare, paid little mind to this issue as boarding pods struck. Easily shifting from one centre of gravity to another, the Space Marines quickly threatened the Last Unto Dawn's lower levels, especially the engine room. Despite the costly fight, Hennasohn could see victory favoring him. Until a new contact emerged from the Nox system. Abyssii had deployed a Mechanicum Ark, which now slowly made its way to Semotus. Easily several times larger than Hennasohn's flagship, the Glory of Summer threatened to completely undo the Drowned's gains the moment it would enter into weapon ranges. It is unknown what would have happened next for as the Ark sailed towards the conflict, that is when Gwalchavad appeared with the entire 11th Expeditionary Fleet. Unaware that they faced a Primarch, the Abyssii prepared to make war on the new intruders when Gwalchavad offered to cease hostilities, surrendering himself to enforce them. The brief battle with the Abyssii would be a bitter affair for the Drowned. Despite displaying superior tactics, half of Hennasohn's tendril fleet was either destroyed or crippled. Hundreds of Drowned were dead in the few hours of battle, most mangled to the point where gene-seeds were unrecoverable when their ships detonated. Finally, it would be this incident that would lead to Morro's disfigurement and self-exile. To this day, the Drowned carry a grudge against the Mechanicum Abyssii. 'The Xantriss Retribution' By the twilight years of the Great Crusade, the Drowned had by this stage built a nigh-on insurmountable wall of secrecy around their Legion. Few Remembrancers remained with them, finding the lack of Army personnel leeched common humanity from the fleets, and the Drowned's way of making war offered few opportunities to bear witness. To be sure, not all tasks could be done by servitors, but the Legion’s serfs formed their own insular community, and were almost as unwelcoming as their masters. So only a few persisted in their studies of the XVIth, and we can surmise they proved easy to monitor. It is perhaps for this reason that the Xantriss Insurrection lingers in memory as one of the few recorded battles offering a vague warning of things to come. The actual Insurrection was a relatively straightforward affair. In the last months of 999.M30, Colonel Curze and his regiment, the Megaran 54th Phalanx, had abruptly ended all contact with the Imperium a few weeks after securing Compliance on Xantriss. Kiaguz's favoured rank belied his true power. In truth he was closer to a Lord Marshal, binding his feral-worlder troops to him with a magnetic personality and undeniable military prowess. He had drawn comments for the way in which he eschewed outside elements, taking only a minimal complement of Mechanicum magi to ensure his authority went unchallenged. Yet, as with so many unsavoury but useful individuals, it proved easy to overlook these tendencies considering his tally of conquest. Xantriss was a feral death world, covered in tropical rainforests that was dominated by an inordinate amount of predator species. The human population had been reduced to a primitive state by Old Night and lacked the technology to maintain control of the surface. Therefore, the Xantriss people had endured by burrowing into the soil, creating elaborate underground cities throughout the millennia. It was from these hidden abodes the natives would hunt and retreat, eking out a misery existence until the Imperium's arrival. The Imperials faced the dual challenge of eradicating the Orks and imposing Compliance upon the human population. Colonel Kiaguz, having no desire to engage in a long and bloody campaign, decided that a show of force was in order. Locating the largest settlement on Xantriss, the Megaran 54th deployed en masse, specifically targeting the Orks. Long denied any chance to fight the kind of massive battles they craved except among themselves, the Orks swarmed against the Imperials in numbers large enough to be seen from orbit. Kiaguz exploited this to the hilt, ordering bombardments from orbit before committing almost his entire terrestrial force. Four months of war followed, and Xantriss' people emerged into a world ground beneath the tread of iron beasts and men who killed greenskins with fire and blue starlight. In a grisly but potent piece of symbolism, the carcasses were given to the natives for food and trophies. Awed by the “sky-people's” might and generosity, the humans of Xantriss devoted themselves to the strangers, deifying their leader as Kiaguz completed the conquest. Why would a man who appeared quite rational, cognizant of the might of his overlords, bite the hand that fed him? Sadly, the Galaxy often denies us the reasons, and so we have no idea why Kiaguz traded almost certain elevation for rebellion. From the few records recovered in the aftermath, it is now clear that instead of stopping the natives' ill-placed worship, he embraced it. Kiaguz forsook his duty and claimed Xantriss, claiming the god-kingship the natives bestowed on him. The Warmaster would not let this stand, and an example was to be made of the rebels. Ending the Xantriss Insurrection fell to Morro and the Drowned. It is widely believed that Morro was chosen because, with Andezo occupied elsewhere and no Legion having ties to the rebels, the task simply fell to the one whose honour would be least besmirched by the deed. Perhaps, however, Alexandros intended it as one more effort to reach out, to make Morro feel valued after the Vizenko Prosecution. Of the battle to come, the void war was the most well-recorded aspect, as the remembrancers encountered few restrictions while they did their work. The gross mismatch testifies to the depth of Kiaguz's delusions: Morro brought two Gloriana-class ships with him, leading a flotilla of nearly three hundred vessels. No Army fleet, however large, could expect to survive intact. Moreover, the combined 232nd and 457th Fleets had already proven sufficient to drive Kiaguz's ships back into the world's orbit. By Morro's order they refrained from further action, blockading the system. Upon his arrival, Morro commenced an attack that saw a full third of the enemy ships taken intact. However, this was not without casualties as the Imperials found psykers, taken from the feral population, fighting in Kiaguz's ranks. Plainly more would be found on Xantriss itself. In line with their brutal practicality, the Drowned unleashed a six-hour bombardment of the surface, targeting the largest concentrations of the native population and the few surface bases of the Megaran 54th. Yet, the supposed location of the rogue Colonel, who was based in Xantriss' largest subterranean metropolis, was spared. This in itself was not unusual; the traitors were to be punished, and it was only fitting that they be given time to reflect on the fate they had earned. The Drowned launched a series of vast orbital drops. The remembrancers were prohibited from following, and so the terrestrial war would be seen only by XVIth Legion eyes. Fighting would last two days as the Drowned scoured the tunnel networks of the Megaran 54th and their native allies. Forbidden from the surface, the remembrancers did their best to piece together events from overheard casualty reports, watching for equipment requests, and monitoring additional deployments to Xantriss. The expectation was that the defenders’ familiarity with the terrain would enable them to stall the Legionaries, even inflict significant casualties with their shamanic witchery. Yet soon it became clear that the Drowned were engaging in a war not of subjugation, but of outright annihilation. Morro, directing the initial phase from the Horrorheart, resolved to treat the planet as a Death World, with no concessions to preserving its environment or people. The people of Xantriss had proven themselves in thrall to superstition, and they would not get a second chance. Orbital picts showed the forests blackening and dying, the prefabricated fortifications established in the wastelands created by the bombardments. Bulk lifters brought captives in their thousands to the fleet, the Drowned enslaving all whom they did not kill. Excavation engines, requisitioned by the Legion from nearby worlds, were used to tear open the warrens and bunkers. They pulled the campaign onto their own terms in the most brutal way, destroying the world their enemies had known. The captives were never seen aboard the Legion’s ships except by the Drowned and their serfs, but the fleet’s labs and forge decks, always forbidden to civilians, thrummed with activity. The mortal commanders watched with a growing sense of unease, permitted only to establish what would become penal mining colonies and process captives before the wretches were taken to the Drowned ships. The conduct of the XVIth Legion only made things worse, as they refused to hold meetings aboard their own ships. Disturbing dreams became widespread among personnel, with the Astropaths and Navigators most troubled of all. A day after the shattering conclusion to the campaign and the departure of the main Drowned force, the Army and remembrancers were given leave to see the battlefield themselves. The picts and paintings of the desolation speak eloquently of the devastation. The Drowned did nothing to guide the remembrancers as they dragged the prisoners aboard their lifters and retrieved the last of their war machines. With little apparent oversight, the remembrancers continued their work and would discover more mysteries around the Xantriss Insurrection. The first of them would be found in one of the capillary tunnels, where an imagist discovered the remains of an earlier skirmish. The Drowned's infamous practicality often dictated their combat style; most enemies were dispatched with the bare minimum of force as the Drowned advanced. But here and in seven other locations, native soldiers and members of the 54th were found torn apart, killed in a manner of surpassing cruelty. When questions were asked, the planet's fauna was blamed, the Drowned subsequently forbidding all remembrancers from returning to the sites in question. The explanation, although technically possible, seemed suspect given the Drowned's defensive perimeters and their ravaging of the world. Treading the ground, the remembrancers finally saw the Legion's work for themselves. The surface was unrecognisable, churned by tank tracks and missile strikes. The atmosphere was scalding, climate change running out of control in the wake of the despoliation. Several regions were inaccessible to mortals, owing to the chemical and rad-weapons wielded by The Drowned. Even where these weapons had not been deployed, an atmosphere of dread permeated, with nightmares and hallucinations affecting those mortals who ventured to the battlefields. So it was at Kurium, where the renegade Colonel had been dug out of his fortress by sheer brute force. Only a few braved the pall of misery that hung over the ruin, but this was enough for the final mystery to emerge. A historian named Jakun Iopado discovered a strange vial in the tunnels of Kiaguz's final redoubt. It lay broken and half-buried in the cave wall, but some dregs of liquid still remained. Unwilling to share his discovery with the Drowned, Iopado concealed the vial and only had it analyzed after transferring to the Dune Serpents a few months later. Upon the transfer, he handed it over to an Apothecary for analysis. Given the state of the vial, nothing certain could be deduced, but the Apothecary hypothesised that it was some sort of narcotic, designed to influence an Astartes. As for the Colonel himself, Kiaguz was seen briefly in the aftermath, kept on the surface to watch as his devotees were enslaved. The man showed every sign of being broken, gibbering of the horrors he had seen. He was never seen again by civilian eyes, but Morro let his ultimate fate be known; he kept Kiaguz caged as a source of amusement until his mind deteriorated completely, whereupon he became an armoury servitor. 'The Battle of Phemus IV' In most other theatres, Phemus IV would have been an insignificant rock, to be catalogued, assessed for its potential to be cultivated and inhabited, and rejected on every count. It was a world wracked by tectonic violence, its atmosphere sulphurous and its skies as inhospitable as the surface, it lay within the Qarith Empire, and those foul xenos infested it with the same tenacity that the forces of the Imperium had learned to rue in so many systems. The first fleet to assault the Phemus system was a mixed force of Predators and Crimson Lions, backed by a sizeable Army contingent. They laid waste the Qarith fleet, noting heavier resistance than expected but not enough to deter them, and commenced operations against the first three worlds. They reported the unusually powerful flotilla to nearby fleets, but found little to justify it on those three planets. On Phemus IV, however, they discovered its purpose, and nearly came to disaster. The Qarith's adaptability enabled them to create vast hives underground, obscured from auspex-scans and probes. It was from these tunnels that they struck at the Imperials when they landed. Against all expectation, the aliens had constructed spawning complexes in this unlikeliest of locales. They came in their thousands, turning what was meant to be a staking out of territory into a murderous defence. The Lions attempted to land a second wave, but Qarith Banshees and aircraft filled the skies, and it was all the gunships could do to cover their comrades on the ground. The warriors who had already made planetfall got protection from the skies, and were forced to weather the full fury of the alien defenders. The Imperials scrambled more craft and, at a steep cost, extracted their surviving ground forces. The Lions were incensed, but cool heads prevailed; the danger existed of the Qarith attempting to retake the system, and it would be foolhardy to embark on a second invasion when the planet had already proven such a fearsome target. While the Army regiments attached to the fleet had served commendably across the system, Phemus IV’s climate made their deployment impossible. The fleet blockaded the planet, set guards and minefields on potential points of translation, and called for reinforcements. When these arrived, their ships were clad in the blue-green of ocean water, chased with copper. From the flagship, Sorrowsworn Morro gazed down upon the planet and vowed to conquer it. Swiftly, he redirected other fleets to forestall any attempt by the Qarith to interfere, and reinforced the guard on the Mandeville points, before turning his attention to Phemus IV. Morro’s strategy was devoid of sentimental bravado. With the authority vested in him, he pronounced Phemus IV deserving of any fate short of Exterminatus. As such, and with the world plainly infested with hardy and virulent xenos life, full licence was given for phosphex and all bio-weapons short of virus-bombs. With such weapons and cold ruthlessness, the Drowned laid waste four areas across the world, each covering some thousand square kilometres. The flames had scarcely begun to dissipate when the first drop-pods descended into the atmosphere. Morro would not hear out any request from the Lions and Wardens for a place in the vanguard. Instead, Terminator companies and Dreadnoughts spearheaded forces of heavy assault units, digging in and bracing themselves for the inevitable counter-attack. When this came, Morro’s response was already well on its way: squadrons of interceptors, bombers and Fire Raptor gunships. Phosphex and Vasgotox were used against the densest formations, and the drop sites were rapidly secured. Armour and artillery were landed next, accompanied by veteran companies. Then the Drowned brought their own auxiliaries to the surface. Being combat servitors, Cybernetica robots and Ordo Reductor thralls, these were not impeded by the environment as mortal troops would be. The fighting was incessant, and the IIIrd and Vth Legion detachments returned to the fray with naked zeal, matched by the Drowned Men. Destroyers were unleashed with a freedom rarely afforded to them. Slowly, inexorably, the Astartes advanced, air strikes and bombardments driving the Qarith back underground or into the jaws of Imperial formations. The world’s tectonic instability prevented the construction of long-term outposts, but pre-fabricated bunkers provided Morro's forces with a useful compromise, and his gunships and bulk landers served to quickly ferry troops and materiel across the surface, or to and from orbit. Within four Terran weeks, the xenos had effectively ceded control of the surface. Morro well understood the devious ways in which the Qarith would defend their hives, and matched their guile and ruthlessness. Lava flows were diverted to scour warrens. Cataphract robots were equipped with mining tools to break them open, allowing tanks to saturate them with fire. Poison gas flooded them. With flamers, volkites and rad-cleansers, the Legionaries cleansed the veins of the world. Morro led many attacks himself, though he always deployed servitors to probe ahead, rather than lose more valuable troops to Qarith traps. It is speculated that the Drowned made heavy use of their Revenant Engines on Phemus IV, though if this is the case, they concealed the machines from their comrades just as they did elsewhere. The campaign was laborious, and dragged on for two months until the Copper Prince deemed the world no longer worthy of his attention. The bulk of the XVIth Legion moved on towards Qarith Prime, leaving an extermination task force to ensure no life remained on Phemus IV. 'Legion Gene-Seed' 'Legion Combat Tactics' There are few battlegrounds as dangerous as the ones that exist beneath the waves. But there will be no escape for the enemies of the Imperium, not even the depths of an ocean. In this dangerous environment, The Drowned go to war, exterminating strange creatures that few others see. Combat is an elaborate game of cat-and-mouse, where but a single puncture in armour can spell death, even for a Space Marine. This brutal environment has shaped the Drowned and their melancholic Primarch, Morro. With few friends and distrusted by his own sons, Morro is a dark figure who will tread the unthinkable paths during the Insurrection for the sake of his own goals. 'Unique Rite of War: The Nightmare Begins' One of the Drowned's favoured styles of combat is a rapid strike, renowned even among the other Legions, in order to capitalize on the sheer shock-and-awe effect of the Astartes. However, there were few who would countenance such operations, to the extent that the Drowned refined this action in private. Not only would the Drowned unleash their full horrific capabilities, as they strike from all angles, but also would have no hesitation in throwing their allied forces at enemy lines as a distraction to allow the Drowned to seek their objectives from a foe distracted and engaged. The Drowned themselves would have no hesitation in calling in danger close fire missions on engaged troops from the Imperial Militia. Such results, although effective, would often result in military assets being withdrawn from service alongside the Drowned – few of the superior Solar Auxilia pattern regiments or host Astartes Legions would consider working in conditions when the Drowned showed such little care or empathy. 'Notable Legion Members' *'Sorrowsworn Morro' - Primarch of The Drowned. *'Lord Commander Hennasohn' - Vigilator Prime and Telekine Sword Fighter, serves as Primarch Morro's Equerry. *'Equerry Boræo' - Moritat *'Broklur Tidespiter' - Known as the 'Abyssal Knight', Broklur Tidespiter was the Last Shoalmaster of the Twenty-Sixth. When the Twenty-Sixth tendril fleet's masters defied their Primarch's call to war against the Emperor, Broklur Tidespite followed his commanders with a steadfast conviction that would see him through the attrition that followed. This resolve he kept in spite of the murderous violence visited upon the Twenty-Sixth, and as those above and around him fell he ascended quickly. The First Solar War left him as de facto Ayatollah, walking the line between the urge to punish Icarion's armies and his tendril's survival. When Aegar Vyrn began to piece together his coalition of broken armies, Tidespite actively sought him out, recognising a commander who might forge something greater from the orphaned and scattered loyalists who fought in the shadow of Icarion's counterfeit empire. As before, his resolve and mettle placed him in good stead, and the Twenty-Sixth would repay many times over the hurt inflicted upon them. *'Fleshreaver Tanno' - Legionary Fleshreaver Tanno served in Shoal Rishon, Psalida Shlishi-Sheni. He was one of many who were pressed into the Drowned during its galactic sub-orbital campaigns. There is no record of his planet of origin, but Tanno proved able to adapt to the Drowned's brutal standards. After surviving and excelling in several campaigns, Tanno would be chosen to accompany his Primarch to the surface of Untara Prime. There, he would witness the betrayal against the Scions Hospitalier and would be responsible for personally slaying seven Scions in close combat before being grievously wounded. He would survive his wounds and go on to new heights of slaughter in due time. *'Tidemaker Renno' 'Legion Fleet' 'Legion Relics' *''Rimeshatter'' - A unique master-crafted phoenix power lance/lascutter. 'Legion Appearance' 'Legion Colours' 'Legion Badge' 'Notable Quotes' Feel free to add your own 'By The Drowned' Feel free to add your own 'About The Drowned' ''Gallery'' The Drowned Color.png|The Drowned Legion iconography Drowned.png|The Drowned Legion colour scheme Category:Insurrectionist Category:Legions